MTV has long been a home for original series speaking to young audiences. After starting as an exclusively music-focused network, MTV eventually branched into reality shows and scripted series. Teen dramas such as “The Shannara Chronicles,” “Teen Wolf,” and the American version of “Skins” all premiered on MTV. Before any of those series debuted, the network took its first step into original scripted, non-animated, non-sketch-comedy programming in 1994 with “Dead at 21,” a sci-fi series created by Jon Sherman.
A series built on youthful rebellion and Sherman’s own interest in the cyberpunk novels of authors like William Gibson, “Dead at 21” followed Jack Noseworthy’s Ed Bellamy, a 20-year-old with microchips implanted in his brain. Ed had been part of a secret government program aimed at unlocking children’s full mental potential to drive human evolution, a concept popular in science fiction at the time. Unfortunately, the chips came with a deadly side effect — they would kill Ed by the time he turned 21.
The series followed Ed’s adventures once the program was shut down, putting him in the crosshairs of Agent Winston (Whip Hubley), who was tasked with capturing all remaining test subjects. “Dead at 21” ran for just one season, ending on a cliffhanger that left the fates of Ed, Winston, and Ed’s love interest Maria (Lisa Dean Ryan) unresolved. Amid a troubled production, the series was swiftly canceled by MTV.
Dead at 21 was a rocky first foray into scripted drama for MTV
“Dead at 21” has an important place in MTV’s history, marking the beginnings of their original scripted live-action programming. However, it wasn’t exactly a smooth start. Looking back on the series in a retrospective for Drunk Monkeys, Sherman reflected on how “Dead at 21” had been thrown together by people with little experience and little direction, working for a network that was attempting to “reverse engineer” success. Many episodes were designed to emulate popular music videos or to manufacture scenes built around songs from MTV’s extensive music library.
Sherman said that there was no “cohesive vision or trajectory or idea for the show… string and chewing gum, we’re totally just patching this [explicative] together… You just get it out the door.” Without union representation, Sherman had little control over his own series. According to this interview, he received no “created by” credit and was pushed aside after the pilot was picked up, when Viacom hired writer and producer Rod Taylor as showrunner. Sherman noted he “felt very much on the outside with Rod,” who threw out Sherman’s season finale plans in favor of his own.
Following its cancellation, “Dead at 21” has not been made available on any streaming platforms. The series has also never received an official DVD release, making it incredibly difficult for viewers to track down today.